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Visiting Brazil from the US is a Pain

We saw a GREAT deal on airfare to Brazil on LAN so we thought we’d go … BIG mistake.

The deal:

Payments Details:

Base:

$568.00

Taxes/Fees:

$203.56

Total Price:

$769.56 USD

That’s not too bad fr two tickets round trip, but what we didn’t consider was how difficult getting the visas would be and how costly they would be. A few weeks ago I read that getting a visa to Brazil out of the Los Angeles consulate was … a challenge. We’ve never visited a country where we needed a formal visa (American privilege anyone? #BluePassport) and I thought that we would show up one day, without an appointment, with our paperwork, we’d pay a few dollars and they’d stamp something or give us something and we’d be done. Um … no.

The Los Angeles consulate has you:

Fill out an application online and you need that number before you can even make an appointment.

Make an appointment online for each individual (including the baby) but the calendar is blocked for months at a time.

Show up the day of your interview and present your paperwork, a money order from USPS only for $160 … EACH.

Keeps your passport for an unspecified amount of time.

Mails everything you need to your home.

Now I see why most people use a third-party agency. This is some bullshit. Now we have to pay $160 each (including the baby) plus the $60 per passport the agency charges.

This brings our airfare ($385 including taxes) and passport, we haven’t even gotten to the car, hotel, food and entertainment, ($220 total) to $605 each. Now that I write it, I kind of feel like a dill hole. $605 roundtrip to Brazil isn’t bad either, I guess I’m just mad because it feel like there were so many hidden fees.